


It Didn’t Need to End Like This (But I’m Okay That it Did)

by mattie24601



Category: Happiest Season (2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Continues past canon, F/F, Fix-It, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27767395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattie24601/pseuds/mattie24601
Summary: Abby reflects on her relationship with Harper while they're at the Caldwells for Christmas. And makes an important decision.I didn't like how the movie ended so I changed it.
Relationships: Abby Holland/Riley Johnson, Harper Caldwell/Abby Holland, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 213
Collections: H_S





	It Didn’t Need to End Like This (But I’m Okay That it Did)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this instead of the 4 other fics I'm currently working on. I really didn't like how the movie ended, because Abby would have been completely justified in breaking up with Harper, but I understand that they wanted a happy ending for Harper. I wrote this after watching the movie for the first time so forgive me if I got anything wrong.

Really, Harper pulling over to tell her that she wasn’t actually out to her parents, when they were less than half an hour away from her parents’ house, was the beginning of the end for them. And, okay, whatever, fine, it was going to be rough pretending to not be in love with her girlfriend for the next five days, but she would do it, because Abby loves Harper, she really does, until Harper says that she has to go back in the closet as well because Harper can’t be seen associating with “someone like her”.

It just kept getting worse the more their week went on. First was Connor showing up at their dinner and Harper started falling back into her old ways, almost flirting with him. But, the one upside from that dinner was meeting probably the only, out, queer person in that town. Not that it was much of a meeting, but still. Abby had heard about Riley, in passing, from Harper, about their high school love story. And the next night there was the party, Harper invited her to some donor event for her father and then immediately abandoned her. She sees Riley again, and actually has a real-ish conversation with her. It’s composed of only two sentences but it’s more than she’s talked to Harper all night. Everyone that she’s talked to at this event she’s talked to more than Harper. And then the unfortunate shoplifting scandal. Abby knows that Harper knows she didn’t do it, but Harper barely tries to convince her family otherwise. Abby runs into Riley while wandering around town waiting for Harper to be out of dinner and they can meet up with her friends. She asks for Riley’s help to find a white elephant gift but they end up going to a bar instead. It’s nice, having someone like Riley to hang out with while she’s being abandoned by her girlfriend. 

She leaves Riley at the bar when Harper texts her that she and her friends are at a bar down the street. Abby had been half hoping that they would get some time to be themselves while they were out but no, it’s more pretending and Harper slips right back into her high school facade and flirts with Connor the whole night ignoring Abby. She finally gets fed up with it and leaves less than an hour into her night asking Harper to text her when she leaves. That night after she gets back to Harper’s she gets ready for bed and texts Harper that she’s going to bed, and then an hour later, after no response, sends a good night text. She really wishes that she had just stayed home and none of this would ever have happened, or at least she wouldn’t have to know about it.

The next morning she wakes up to a text from Harper from 2 in the morning that she was finally leaving. Abby goes upstairs to confront her about the previous night and her flirting with Connor, not even really caring how loud she gets, Abby doesn’t really want to out Harper because she heard about what that did to Riley, but she’s so angry that Harper is falling back into a character of who she is at home and not spending any time with her. Abby storms out of Harper’s room and calls Riley because she really needs a distraction right now and trying to find a white elephant gift for the big Caldwell Christmas Eve Extravaganza isn’t her ideal day but she needs a gift still so it's better than nothing. 

Spending the past two days with Riley was the most fun Abby had on this trip. Just having someone she could talk to without needing to hide who she is and who understands the situation of Harper and her family. In fact, Riley is probably the only one who understands that, being the only other girl Harper had dated. She’s probably spent more time with Riley in these past two days than she has with Harper in the past four. 

Abby misses Harper so much, she misses her Harper, but she’s not really sure who that is anymore, she’s not sure if her Harper ever really existed. 

The Christmas Eve party is very weird, Abby just stands kind of awkwardly off to the side while Harper goes around and charms her parents’ guests as “the perfect daughter”. She gets a truly terrible drink and she’s not really sure what it is, other than alcohol with some sort of wintery spices. Riley comes over and entertains her for a little bit, even stealing some of her drink, which seems very intimate but Abby’s a little too buzzed from the bad alcohol to realize that. And then things get weirder, Harper and her sister, Sloane, get into an all-out fistfight in the hallway and it somehow goes unheard by the rest of the party guests. Until it moves into the living room where the white elephant exchange is happening, and Sloane outs Harper to everyone in the house. Abby understands how awful that is, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less when Harper denies it, so she runs out of the house, into the snow, without a jacket. She barely turns her head when she hears footsteps, if it’s Harper she really doesn’t want to talk to her, or anyone else really. Especially not while she’s crying on Christmas Eve, she was right to not like this holiday, it brings out the worst in people. But it’s not Harper, it’s John, holding her jacket, which she is grateful for, it’s freezing outside.

John reminds her that people have different coming out stories, and not everyone will be like her parents.

“But what if I don’t want to wait for her to be ready? She can take all the time she needs to be ready, but I don’t think I’m going to still be there when she is.”

“Let’s go then, we can go home, and you can stay with me and we can celebrate Christmas, just the two of us. Or not celebrate,” John amends when he sees the look on his friend’s face.

“Will you come with me to get my stuff? I don’t think I can go back in there alone.”

“Of course, you know I’ll always have your back.”

They go back inside and everyone else has left, it’s just the Caldwells and they all look very uncomfortable. Suddenly Harper speaks up, confessing to her family, that she is a lesbian and that she’s in love with Abby and she looks at Abby so hopefully.

“I’m leaving,” Abby tells her she's trying really hard not to cry because she’s ending a year-long relationship, and she was going to ask Harper to marry her.

“But, I-I did it.” Harper sounds like she’s trying not to cry also.

“I’m sorry. It was just too late.” Abby and John keep going to her room to pack up and drive back to Pittsburgh.

_To: Riley Bennett (Dr.)  
Hey, sorry I didn’t get to say good-bye. I think you’re the only reason I stayed sane this past week._

_To: Abby Holland  
I heard about what happened, I’m sorry._

Abby moves in with John for a bit and manages to get her stuff back before Harper comes back from her parents. She can’t find it in her to return the ring yet, eventually she will, but not yet, not so close to the breakup.

Several years down the line, once Abby has finished her PhD program, she gets a job at Morgan University, teaching art history. She loves her job, getting to talk about what she loves, to people who share her love and she doesn’t have to worry about running into Harper.

Part of the reason she took Morgan U’s offer was because Riley chose to do her residency at Johns Hopkins and Abby was able to live with her. Already having a friend in a new city made choosing to move much easier. And then, one drunken night they slept together and decided that they liked each other’s company not only as friends but as girlfriends. And despite her disastrous first engagement attempt, Abby was the one who proposed to Riley, with a different ring, of course, it was the day Riley was accepted to her fellowship. Abby had been planning to propose for a while, but the look on Riley’s face when she found out made her not want to wait any longer.

**Author's Note:**

> I used Bennett for Riley's last name because that's what's written on the Wikipedia page for the movie, and there's nothing on IMDb about surnames. Johnson seems to be pretty popular here but I went with what I could find.


End file.
